Under the title "Brandy", the selection's original title, the song charted in 1971 for
Scott English, one of its co-composers, whose version of it reached number 12 on the
UK Singles Chart. It was also released in the United States, where it was a minor hit, remaining in the lower portion of the Hot 100. The suggestion that Scott English wrote the song about a favorite dog is apparently false. English later said that a reporter called him early one morning asking who "Brandy" was, and an irritated English made up the dog story to get the reporter off his back. In a 2013 interview, he said the idea for the song title came while he was in France and someone tried to make a dirty joke saying "Brandy goes down fine after dinner, doesn't she" although in English, a drink does not actually have a grammatical gender, and the line does not have the intended double entendre. He later wrote the song in London. He said he hated the Manilow version because he took out part of a verse and made it a bridge, but he later loved it because it bought him houses. The song was inspired by his life, he said, the face in the window being his father.
Record World said it was "just the sort of slightly uptempo
pop ballad that should click on these shores."
Charts ==Bunny Walters version==